As I mentioned before, I hate going to the doctor. It’s not that hospitals/doctor/blood/etc. frighten me, it just always seems like a waste of my time to go to see a doctor. This might seem like a preposterous statement to many people, but I don’t take drugs. Weather they are over the counter, prescription or street, I just have no interest in putting drugs in my body. And, going to the doctor almost always results in a prescription being written, which is a waste of my time because I will not get it filled.

I went to Urgent Care 6 days ago because I was really starting to get worried. I have been sick for over a month now, which is extremely odd for me. I don’t think I have ever been sick for more then 48 hours before, plus everyone has me worried about the effect on my health from getting tasered three times by a rouge cop, which happened a couple days before I started feeling sick. I had pneumonia (which I did not see a doctor for) and I began to have a sharp pain in my side, which I assumed was plurisy. When I went to Urgent Care, I told the doctor that I thought I had plurisy so within the 10 minutes I spent in Urgent Care, I walked out with 5 prescriptions and a shot of steroids in the ass, to treat the symptoms of what I was experiencing. Within 2 days, the sharp pain had moved from the side of my rib cage to directly under my left boob, spanning to my sternum. Also, the pain had changed from a really sharp stabbing to a dull, but intense deep bruising feeling. Since the pain was moving and changing (but not in a good way), I was getting worried and decided that I better go back to Urgent Care.

You know what happened? I met the best doctor I have ever seen.

I told him exactly what was happening: I had pneumonia a week ago, I feel totally fine, cough is getting way better (almost completely gone), phlem looks good (white and cloudy), but I have a really intense, deeply bruised feeling right under my left boob, which I would liken to getting in a car accident and bashing my chest against the steering wheel. It’s painful to get out of bed, pushing with my left arm hurts that area (under-boob to sternum) and awkward movements/bending of the body, was extremely uncomfortable. From all of the propoganda that people were telling me, I was sure that the pneumonia was settling in the bottom of my left lung and I was going to die.

Most doctors treat symptoms, which is my biggest pet peeve because I just want to know what is wrong with me. It’s all too easy to be the doctor that says, “You feel pain? Here’s a prescription for a pain killer. You feel sick? Here’s a prescription for an antibiotic. You feel sad? Here’s a prescription for an antidepressant. ” (See I could be a doctor!)

Luckly, I was being seen by a doctor that actually likes what he does and was interested in the odd feeling that I felt. We sat there and talked about exactly what I was feeling and why it was odd and inconsistent with pluerisy. It turns out that I do not have pleurisy and I don’t need the 5 prescriptions and the shot of steroids that the other doctor gave me. The violent cough that I had from the pneumonia actually pulled/strained the muscle that is between my 4th and 5th rib, which just takes some heat packs and time to heal. Yay!

This is great news, but it still hurts like a mo’ fo’…

As much as I hate going to the doctor, I have an intolerable stabbing pain in my left lung so I actually went to the hospital today. It turns out that I had pneumonia this last week or so and the really bad cough I have ended up bruising my ribs and now I have pleurisy, too. Pleurisy (or pleuritis) is an inflammation of the membrane that surrounds the lungs and it makes breathing really painful. Everytime I take a breath it feels like someone is stabbing me in the side and it gets worse when I lay down, so I’ve been sleeping sitting up. I got a shot of steroids (which makes the inflammation go down) at the hospital, so I feel a little bit better, but unfortunately steriods are only a temporary fix. Hopefully my lung won’t explode and I’ll get better.

I also got a doctors note stating that I should take at least two days off work. I guess the doctor didn’t really understand that I’m self employed, therefore I don’t have anyone to give the note to, but okay.